lists

Since the birth of cinema, the stereotype of the female as victim has been explored in countless ways. Females on screen, much as in real life (and to this day) exerted their limited power (beauty, charm, maternal sway) to manipulate those with power into giving them what they desired. And in the 1930’s, no actress epitomized the young female ideal more than Shirley Temple.

In all of her roles, Temple represented the feminine traits that were desirable in a young girl/woman-to-be: beauty, intelligence, social graces, and possessing a strong moral compass.

Noir films and the sinister Femme Fatales of the 1940’s/50’s crossed over from Europe and opened the doors for mainstream American audiences to witness the development of a new type of young female character: The Girl Antagonist.

Our website is a lot easier to read/load now. Check it out. The first time I tried to use the site in an all flash environment, I thought it looked really “fancy” and there was definitely a lot of eye candy going on. But soon I realized it wasn’t user friendly at all and things took forever to load. This redesign has been in the works for a while, and I actually think it makes the text and images stand out a lot more. It’s still in beta of course but, it’s definitely a step in the right direction…

…Maybe it’s because I watched De Palma’s Sisters right before The Tenant, but I couldn’t help but think about all the movies I have loved that have explored multiple personalities.

The Tenant isn’t exactly about multiple personalities as it is about a man’s descent into paranoia-induced madness, but he does a major portion of the film in drag, imagining himself to be Simone.

Sisters is about Siamese twins and how after a botched surgical procedure takes the life of one twin, the other absorbs her personality as a coping mechanism and murders any man she sleeps with.

In Sisters, De Palma uses a lot of split screens, and in The Tenant, Trelkovsky sees himself through binoculars both in the shared bathroom and when he is visited in the hospital. Fragmented perception (as a theme and as a visual style) always hooks me.

On the subway this morning with Jennifer I posed my usual list question. Today’s was:

“Name all currently working Female Film Directors”

I say currently because so often a woman will direct a film, and then you never hear from her again or her work is few and far between. The rule was, she has to have consistently made at least one film every few years

Sofia Coppola – Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette… She is the third woman in history to be nominated for a Best Director Academy Award, sharing this honor with Jane Campion (The Piano) and Lina Wertmüller (Seven Beauties).

Mary Harron – I Shot Any Warhol, American Psycho, The Notorious Bettie Page

Karyn Kusama – Girl Fight, Eon Flux

Kasi Lemmons – Eve’s Bayu, Dr. Hugo, The Caveman’s Valentine, Talk to Me… She also played a supporting role in Silence of the Lambs. I saw her speak in 1999 on a panel for the Women in Film Networking Event, which also marked the 2nd time I ever flew anywhere by my self.

… That was all we could think of. Being crushed between large people doesn’t leave a lot of room for brainstorming.

… I wanted to say Kimberly Peirce but she hasn’t done anything since Boys Don’t Cry, which is a shame. And Allison Anders, although directing a lot for TV, hasn’t directed anything for film since Things Behind The Sun, which I didn’t even see.

I also couldn’t think of one well known (to U.S. audiences) Latina film director.